I'm reading Trakl at the moment in the Doss-Schmitt bilingual edition; not bad, but I do feel it could be better. He was a leading Austrian expressionist, who published three volumes of poetry, 1908-1914, anonymously financed by Ludwig Wittgenstein. He died young of a cocaine overdose after serving in World War One. The poem here gave Doss and Schmitt their title: The Last Gold of Expired Stars.
I hear echoes of Trakl in Paul Celan.
Cheers,
John
|